


idle fleeting days of youth (Golden)

by Legendaerie



Series: Watercolors [1]
Category: Free!
Genre: Gay Shota Boyfriends, Headcanon, M/M, May continue later
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-27
Updated: 2013-07-27
Packaged: 2017-12-21 11:49:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/899970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Legendaerie/pseuds/Legendaerie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Rin and Haru accidentally date over the course of one blissful summer.</p><p>Alternately, It's Not Gay If You're Ten Years Old And Find Kissing Gross (But It Doesn't Matter In The End)</p>
            </blockquote>





	idle fleeting days of youth (Golden)

**Author's Note:**

> (Notes; wild mass guessing on Matsuoka and Nanase families. Also, spring is the start of the school year in Japan + added some additional headcanons/backstory stuff.)

 

Looking back on things, it's harder to tell when they first fell in love; because ten year old boys don't think about things like that.

 

On the first day of the spring semester, Rin came in like a sudden gust of wind, sweeping Haru up in his flurry and proclaiming himself the 'best friend' without giving anyone else ( Haru included) any say in the matter. He was Alexander the Great, conquering the fabled boy who was water that ran through the fingers of your cupped hands; he was the morning sun melting a boy who had turned to ice; or so some said.  But in reality, Rin was a welcome breath of fresh air, the bracing cold of leaping into the water after a torrid summer. Haru welcomed him in his own quiet way and for almost a year they were happy. 

 

But ten year old boys don't think about things like that.

 

 Rin finds him between classes and teases him, one arm hugs him, finds ways to prove to everyone he was friends with the best swimmer in school. (What no one told him was no one outside the swimming club thought Haru was cool) Those who knew his family understood; the boy whose parents smothered him with expectations and stroked his ego needed someone in his corner. School together was a relay where Haru could be good at art and history while Rin tagged in for the sciences and math; together, they were perfect.

 

But ten year old boys don't think about things like that.

 

Nagisa is his adopted little brother, who follows him around like a duckling and all the girls want to pet. Makoto is his sedate minder, who makes sure he occasionally eats things other than fish. But Haru needs Rin because the other boy fills up all the awkward silences in his life; the attention, the feeling of being the most important person in the world to someone is something he treasures. Parents who work too much and care too little; gossip runs through the teachers of how Haru practically lives alone with an aging, ailing grandmother. So when Rin and Haru are caught passing notes in class, their teacher pities the boy with the lonely blue eyes and lets them off without detention.

 

But ten year old boys don't think about things like that.

 

Rin treats Nagisa and Makoto as accessories more than people; so long as Haru wants them around, it's fine with him. But only so long as he could still throw his arm around Haru's shoulders, give him noogies, buy him ice cream. He is still the best friend after all, and Haru is his. Rin needs to feel like the center of Haru's life, the sun in the galaxy of his mind that all thoughts loosely orbit around. It's selfish, yes, but it works out somehow; they bicker and they balance each other out. The adults start to talk about how they almost seem like they're an old married couple.

 

But ten year old boys don't think about things like that.

 

They'd swim at the beach with Makoto's family - Gou with her brother, and Nagisa, and of course Haru - and when the boys would eventually tire of chasing each other (or trying to catch Haru) around they'd lay on each other in the  reach of the waves and let the water lap at their toes. Basking on the border between land and sea, with Rin's smirk warm as the sun but considerably closer, Haru could hardly be happier. On the last trip, midway through the summer, Rin made Haru pinky swear that they'd be together forever. Gou thought it was very romantic, and told everyone's parents when they went home that day.

 

But ten year old boys don't think about things like that.

 

Rin doesn't really want to Haru because it's only a thing girls do, but when Gou tries to kiss Haru on a dare her brother doesn't speak to her for two days. The thought of Haru having someone else more important in his life frightens him, and he starts to work harder at his own swimming to make sure that he's the best possible person in Haru's life. People notice - his parents, worst of all, notice - and soon 'swimming' becomes added to the list of 'Things Rin Must Master.' Posters of rock stars and tv shows are taken down, replaced with new idols for the boy to worship; they build him a shrine to fill with trophies, and he obliges. But far too many of them read 'Second Place.'

 

But ten year old boys don't think about things like that.

 

Haru's grandmother is taken away in an ambulance, her skin so pale and her breathing so loud Haru thinks that she's drowning in the air, but though he waits on her porch all night alone she doesn't resurface. The next morning he wakes up in his bed in her house to the sound of quiet sobbing - his mother is holding his grandmother's hand as the old woman smiles sadly, and his father paces by the window. When they tell him she only has a couple years left, he assumes it's just until she gets better.

 

But ten year old boys don't think about things like that.

 

So when their last relay race is over and they say goodbye, they don't know how much it means. They don't know things like 'homosexuality' and why so long as Haru exists, Rin will never be a good enough swimmer. They don't know what 'cancer' is and why Haru's parents have to work do hard to keep his grandmother alive. Because when you 're young there's so many things you don't think about.

 

It's only when they're older, looking back on things, that they understand.


End file.
